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Saturday, October 18, 2014

1999 NHL Expansion Draft

The Atlanta Thrashers were the second of the last four NHL expansion teams to take to the ice. The Nashville Predators debuted in 1998, and in 1999 it was the Thrashers' turn.

The Thrashers were owned by Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a division of Time Warner. TBS also owned the Atlanta Hawks basketball club and Atlanta Braves baseball club. Harvey Schiller, president of TBS's Turner Sports division and the Thrashers, hired Don Waddell as the Thrashers' first GM on June 23, 1998 (two months to the day after the "cyber-launch" of the team's logo, unveiled on their website). In his youth Waddell was a defenceman at Northern Michigan University; in fact he was one of the last cuts to not make the 1980 U.S. Olympic team. He played most of his pro hockey career in the IHL, and after he retired as a player in 1988 at the age of 30 he became GM of the IHL's Flint Spirits. By 1995 he had become GM of the IHL's Orlando Solar Bears and a vice-president of RDV Sports, the Solar Bears' parent company that also owned the Orlando Magic basketball club. He left Orlando in 1997 to become assistant GM of the Detroit Red Wings under Ken Holland.

The rules of the 1999 Expansion Draft were set well in advance and were almost identical to the rules of the 1998 Expansion Draft. The only differences were that any team that lost a goalie in 1998 was exempt from losing another in 1999, and in 1999 teams could only chose to protect either one goaltender, five defencemen and nine forwards or two goaltenders, three defencemen and seven forwards—the had been afforded an extra forward or defenceman in 1998.

The Thrashers would chose only one player from each of the other clubs except for the Predators. The Predators, being that they had just finished their first season, were exempt from the draft entirely. Of those 26 players the Thrashers had to choose at least three goaltenders, eight defencemen and 13 forwards; the other two players could be of any position.

The draft announcement was made on Friday, June 25, 1999 beginning at 3:00 pm Eastern Time from the FleetCenter in Boston. A trade freeze went into effect on Sunday the 20th at 5:00 pm (less than 24 hours after the Stanley Cup was won by the Stars), and protected lists were filed on Monday the 21st.

Protected Lists

All teams chose to protect one goalie, five defencemen and nine forwards.

Mighty Ducks of Anaheim

Boston Bruins

Buffalo Sabres

Calgary Flames

Goaltenders

exempt

Byron Dafoe

Dominik Hasek

Fred Brathwaite

Defencemen

Kevin Haller

Ray Bourque

Jay McKee

Tommy Albelin

Jason Marshall

Kyle McLaren

Richard Smehlik

Jamie Allison

Fredrik Olausson

Don Sweeney

Rhett Warrener

Sami Helenius

Ruslan Salei

Mattias Timander

Jason Woolley

Cale Hulse

Pavel Trnka

Darren Van Impe

Alexei Zhitnik

Todd Simpson

Forwards

Frank Banham

Jason Allison

Stu Barnes

Valeri Bure

Ted Donato

Ken Belanger

Curtis Brown

Rene Corbet

Travis Green

Anson Carter

Michal Grosek

Hnat Domenichelli

Paul Kariya

Rob DiMaio

Brian Holzinger

Jarome Iginla

Mike Leclerc

Steve Heinze

Mike Peca

Andrei Nazarov

Marty McInnis

Dmitri Khristich

Wayne Primeau

Jeff Shantz

Steve Rucchin

Randy Robitaille

Miroslav Satan

Cory Stillman

Teemu Selanne

Tim Taylor

Vaclav Varada

Jason Wiemer

Jeremy Stevenson

Landon Wilson

Dixon Ward

Clarke Wilm

Carolina Hurricanes

Chicago Blackhawks

Colorado Avalanche

Dallas Stars

Goaltenders

Arturs Irbe

Jocelyn Thibault

Patrick Roy

Ed Belfour

Defencemen

Steven Halko

Jamie Allison

Greg de Vries

Derian Hatcher

Sean Hill

Brad Brown

Adam Foote

Brad Lukowich

Marek Malik

Anders Eriksson

Jon Klemm

Richard Matvichuk

Nolan Pratt

Boris Mironov

Aaron Miller

Darryl Sydor

Glen Wesley

Bryan Muir

Sandis Ozolinsh

Sergei Zubov

Forwards

Bates Battaglia

Tony Amonte

Adam Deadmarsh

Brett Hull

Ron Francis

Eric Dazé

Shean Donovan

Mike Keane

Martin Gelinas

Doug Gilmour

Theoren Fleury

Jamie Langenbrunner

Sami Kapanen

Jean-Yves Leroux

Peter Forsberg

Jere Lehtinen

Andrei Kovalenko

Josef Marha

Valeri Kamensky

Grant Marshall

Kent Manderville

Dean McAmmond

Claude Lemieux

Mike Modano

Jeff O'Neill

Chris Murray

Shjon Podein

Joe Nieuwendyk

Keith Primeau

Reid Simpson

Joe Sakic

Derek Plante

Gary Roberts

Alexei Zhamnov

Stephane Yelle

Jamie Wright

Detroit Red Wings

Edmonton Oilers

Florida Panthers

Los Angeles Kings

Goaltenders

Chris Osgood

Tommy Salo

Sean Burke

exempt

Defencemen

Chris Chelios

Sean Brown

Bret Hedican

Aki Berg

Mathieu Dandenault

Roman Hamrlik

Filip Kuba

Rob Blake

Nicklas Lidstrom

Christian Laflamme

Paul Laus

Jaroslav Modry

Larry Murphy

Janne Niinimaa

Robert Svehla

Mattias Norstrom

Aaron Ward

Jason Smith

Mike Wilson

Sean O'Donnell

Forwards

Kris Draper

Josef Beranek

Pavel Bure

Donald Audette

Sergei Federov

Mike Grier

Radek Dvorak

Craig Johnson

Tomas Holmstrom

Bill Guerin

Ryan Johnson

Ian Laperriere

Vyacheslav Kozlov

Chad Kilger

Viktor Kozlov

Glen Murray

Martin Lapointe

Georges Laraque

Bill Lindsay

Zigmund Palffy

Kirk Maltby

Todd Marchant

Scott Mellanby

Luc Robitaille

Darren McCarty

Ethan Moreau

Rob Niedermayer

Bryan Smolinksi

Brendan Shanahan

Ryan Smyth

Chris Wells

Jozef Stumpel

Steve Yzerman

Doug Weight

Ray Whitney

Marko Tuomainen

Montreal Canadiens

New Jersey Devils

New York Islanders

New York Rangers

Goaltenders

exempt

exempt

Felix Potvin

exempt

Defencemen

Patrice Brisebois

Ken Daneyko

Eric Cairns

Jason Doig

Vladimir Malakhov

Scott Niedermayer

Vladimir Chebaturkin

Brian Leetch

Craig Rivet

Lyle Odelein

Kenny Jonsson

Rumun Ndur

Igor Ulanov

Sheldon Souray

Rich Pilon

Peter Popovic

Eric Weinrich

Scott Stevens

Barry Richter

Mathieu Schneider

Forwards

Benoit Brunet

Jason Arnott

Mariusz Czerkawski

Adam Graves

Shayne Corson

Patrik Elias

Sean Haggerty

Todd Harvey

Saku Koivu

Bobby Holik

Brad Isbister

Mike Knuble

Trevor Linden

Randy McKay

Olli Jokinen

Eric Lacroix

Martin Rucinsky

Krzysztof Oliwa

Jorgen Jonsson

Darren Langdon

Brian Savage

Jay Pandolfo

Claude Lapointe

John MacLean

Turner Stevenson

Denis Pederson

Mark Lawrence

Petr Nedved

Scott Thornton

Brian Rolston

Mats Lindgren

Kevin Stevens

Dainius Zubrus

Petr Sykora

Vladimir Orszagh

Niklas Sundstrom

Ottawa Senators

Philadelphia Flyers

Phoenix Coyotes

Pittsburgh Penguins

Goaltenders

Patrick Lalime

John Vanbiesbrouck

Nikolai Khabibulin

Tom Barrasso

Defencemen

Igor Kravchuk

Adam Burt

Keith Carney

Sven Butenschon

Janne Laukkanen

Eric Desjardins

Jyrki Lumme

Kevin Hatcher

Lance Pitlick

Karl Dykhuis

Teppo Numminen

Darius Kasparaitis

Wade Redden

Dan McGillis

Deron Quint

Jiri Slegr

Jason York

Chris Therien

Oleg Tverdovsky

Brad Werenka

Forwards

Daniel Alfredsson

Rod Brind'amour

Greg Adams

Matthew Barnaby

Radek Bonk

Keith Jones

Shane Doan

Jan Hrdina

Viacheslav Butsayev

Daymond Langkow

Dallas Drake

Jaromir Jagr

Andreas Dackell

John Leclair

Tavis Hansen

Alexei Kovalev

Bruce Gardiner

Eric Lindros

Robert Reichel

Robert Lang

Steve Martins

Sandy McCarthy

Jeremy Roenick

Kip Miller

Shawn McEachern

Mark Recchi

Keith Tkachuk

Ian Moran

Vaclav Prospal

Mikael Renberg

Rick Tocchet

Martin Straka

Alexei Yashin

Valeri Zelepukin

Juha Ylonen

German Titov

St. Louis Blues

San Jose Sharks

Tampa Bay Lightning

Toronto Maple Leafs

Goaltenders

Roman Turek

Steve Shields

Kevin Hodson

Curtis Joseph

Defencemen

Jeff Finley

Bryan Marchment

Drew Bannister

Bryan Berard

Al MacInnis

Jeff Norton

Cory Cross

Sylvain Côté

Ricard Persson

Marcus Ragnarsson

Sergey Gusev

Alexander Karpovtsev

Libor Prochazka

Mike Rathje

Petr Svoboda

Chris McAllister

Chris Pronger

Gary Suter

Dimitri Yushkevich

Forwards

Jim Campbell

Michal Bros

Colin Forbes

Sergei Berezin

Craig Conroy

Vincent Damphousse

Chris Gratton

Mike Johnson

Pavol Demitra

Jeff Friesen

Steve Kelly

Igor Korolev

Mike Eastwood

Steve Guolla

Michael Nylander

Fredrik Modin

Jamal Mayers

Stephane Matteau

Robert Petrovicky

Yanic Perreault

Scott Pellerin

Brantt Myhres

Mike Sillinger

Steve Sullivan

Pascal Rhéaume

Owen Nolan

Corey Spring

Mats Sundin

Pierre Turgeon

Mike Ricci

Darcy Tucker

Steve Thomas

Scott Young

Ron Stern

Rob Zamuner

Todd Warriner

Vancouver Canucks

Washington Capitals

Goaltenders

Kevin Weekes

Olaf Kolzig

Defencemen

Chad Allan

Sergei Gonchar

Adrian Aucoin

Calle Johansson

Ed Jovanovski

Ken Klee

Bryan McCabe

Joe Reekie

Jason Strudwick

Brendan Witt

Forwards

Todd Bertuzzi

James Black

Donald Brashear

Peter Bondra

Darby Hendrickson

Benoit Gratton

Brad May

Steve Konowalchuk

Mark Messier

Andrei Nikolishin

Alexander Mogilny

Adam Oates

Markus Naslund

Chris Simon

Dave Scatchard

Jaroslav Svejkovsky

Harry York

Richard Zednik

Available Players

In the days leading up to the expansion draft the existing clubs made a few trades:

Damian Rhodes from the Senators to the Thrashers for future considerations on June 18 (TRIVIA: Rhodes was therefore the very first Atlanta Thrasher)

Ted Donato and the rights to Antti-Jussi Niemi from the Senators to the Mighty Ducks for Patrick Lalime on June 18

Mathieu Biron, Josh Green, Olli Jokinen and a first round pick (8th overall—Taylor Pyatt) in the 1999 Entry Draft from the Kings to the Islanders for Marcel Cousineau, Zigmund Palffy, Bryan Smolinski and a fourth round pick in '99 (Daniel Johansson) on June 19

Roman Turek from the Stars to the Blues for a second round pick in '99 (Dan Jancevski) on June 20

Andrew Brunette from the Predators to the Thrashers for a conditional pick in the 2000 Entry Draft (5th round—Matt Hendricks) on June 21

Rather than try to acquire a starting goalie in the expansion draft Don Waddell made a deal with the Senators for Rhodes. Rhodes and Ron Tugnutt combined to make a very strong goaltending duo in Ottawa, but Tugnutt was coming off an excellent season and Rhodes was a pending Group II restricted free agent. Had they protected both Rhodes and Tugnutt they would have had to have offered a goalie with at least 10 games played in 1998-99; Tugnutt and Rhodes were the only two goalies the Senators played in '98-'99, so they would have had to have acquired one from another team. Being that Rhodes was a pending free agent (albeit restricted) and was expected to demand a hefty pay raise, the Senators acquired Patrick Lalime from the Ducks and traded Rhodes to the Thrashers for future considerations. Reportedly the future considerations were to not select one of the Senators' other goalies in the expansion draft, in effect making both Lalime and Tugnutt safe (officially the Senators protected Lalime). The Thrashers got themselves a bona fide starting goalie without having to draft one in the expansion draft and the Senators came through the draft pretty much scot-free.

The Blues acquired Roman Turek only hours after the Stars won the Stanley Cup. Grant Fuhr was 36 years old and about to turn 37, Jamie McLennan was a solid if unspectacular backup and former Vezina Trophy winner Jim Carey's career was over at this point. The Blues needed a new goalie and they found one in Stars' backup Turek. Turek would lead the Blues to a President's Trophy season in 1999-2000 but became known as a choke artist in the playoffs; the Blues were upset in the first round of the 2000 playoffs by the eighth-place San Jose Sharks and in 2001 they lost unceremoniously to the Avalanche in the conference finals. Turek was traded to the Flames in the summer of 2001.

The Panthers were also looking for at least one new goalie. Sean Burke was an adequate starter, filling in for the departed John Vanbiesbrouck in 1998-99, but backup Kirk McLean was an unrestricted free agent and was sure to leave for greener pastures. They didn't acquire one prior to the trade freeze but they made a deal with the Thrashers, which I write of in more detail below.

You might have noticed that the Thrashers' acquisition of Andrew Brunette was officially made on June 21, after the trade freeze went into effect. Being that the Predators weren't involved in the expansion draft the trade ban didn't apply to deals between the Predators and Thrashers.

The trade between the Islanders and Kings, "the Palffy trade", was an interesting one. The Islanders were owned by Steve Gluckstern, Howard Milstein and Edward Milstein's New York Sports Ventures at the time, and they were embroiled in a dispute with Nassau County officials to replace Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum which even then, 15 years ago as of the writing of this, was in disrepair. Nassau balked at footing the bill for a new arena and in response NYSV said they'd cut the payroll of the Islanders by half in order to stem their losses (estimated to be over $20 million for the '98-'99 season). They had already traded away Bryan Berard, Scott Lachance, Ted Donato, Tommy Salo, Robert Reichel, Sergei Nemchinov and Trevor Linden. Palffy was the team's remaining highest player by far, set to make about $5 million (out of a total payroll of less than $25 million) in 1999-2000.

Leading up to the expansion draft Islanders GM Mike Milbury had been negotiating with the crosstown rival Rangers for Palffy's services; the Broadway Blueshirts could have certainly accommodated Palffy's salary. But there was an wrinkle to the negotiations with the Rangers: Cablevision, the company that owned the Rangers, owned the Islanders' local TV broadcast rights. Tentatively the Rangers offered Niklas Sundstrom, Todd Harvey, a prospect, their 11th overall '99 Entry Draft pick and $2.5 million in cash to the islanders for Palffy and defenceman Rich Pilon. The sticking point was the money. The Islanders' owners wanted more.

Negotiations between the Rangers and Islanders for Palffy went over and above GMs Milbury and Neil Smith's heads, right into the Cablevision corporate boardroom: Gluckstern and the Milsteins would give Palffy and Pilon to the Rangers for Sundstrom, Harvey, the prospect, pick and cash, and other concessions related to their television broadcast agreement (more games on TV, more money for the broadcast rights, etc.). It was also rumoured that NYSV was demanding that Cablevision financially support the construction of a new arena for the Islanders, or help lobby Nassau County officials to build one. Cablevision wouldn't have it and negotiations between the two groups fell apart.

The Kings stepped in and made the Islanders an offer: Palffy for prospects, the 8th overall pick and $2 million. It was suspected that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman himself became involved in the negotiations and would have cancelled the trade on the grounds that the Islanders' owners were deliberately debilitating the team by selling off their player assets for cash. They had already traded away Berard, Salo, Reichel, Linden, etc.; to trade away Palffy without acquiring tangible player assets in return would have crippled the team.

Eventually all parties came to amenable agreement: Palffy, Smolinski (about $1.75 million in payroll), minor league goalie Cousineau and a fourth round pick for 1996 30th overall entry draft pick Josh Green, 1997 3rd overall pick Olli Jokinen, 1998 21st overall pick Mathieu Biron and the 8th overall pick in 1999. Kings GM Dave Taylor was reportedly very hesitant to include Jokinen however Mike Milbury insisted and it was suspected the deal wouldn't have gone through the NHL's vetting without Jokinen's inclusion.

Available Players

Mighty Ducks of Anaheim

Boston Bruins

Buffalo Sabres

Calgary Flames

Goaltenders

exempt

Joakim Persson#

Tom DraperII

Tyler MossII

Paxton SchaferII

Dwayne Roloson

Andrei TrefilovII

Robbie TallasII

Ken WreggetIII

Defencemen

Byron BriskeII

Dean ChynowethII

Jason HollandII

Steve BancroftVI

Scott Ferguson

Dave Ellett

Mike HurlbutVI

Eric CharronII

Jamie PushorII

Grant LedyardIII

James PatrickIII

David CooperVI

Terran SandwithVI

Andrei Sapozhnikov#

Darryl Shannon

Trevor DoyleVI

Dan Trebil

Yevgeny ShaldybinII

Johan Finnstrom#

Pascal Trepanier

Dennis VaskeIII

Pavel Rajnoha#

Nikolai Tsulygin

Terry VirtueVI

Dimitri Riabykin#

Sergei Zhukov#

Steve SmithIII

Lee SorochanII

Forwards

Ted Drury

Ken Baumgartner

Randy Cunneyworth

Bob BassenIII

Stu Grimson

Peter Ferraro

Craig FisherVI

Andrew CasselsV

Peter Leboutillier

Chris TaylorVI

Joe JuneauIII

Tom ChorskeIII

Eric LecompteII

Paul Kruse

Jeff Cowan

Jim McKenzie

Scott Nichol

Steve Dubinsky

Tommi Miettinen#

Domenic Pittis

Nils Ekman#

Jeff Nielsen

Rob Ray

Jan Hlavac#

Igor NikulinVI

Geoff SandersonII

Mathias Johansson#

Craig ReichertVI

Steffon WalbyVI

Andreas Karlsson#

Tomas SandstromIII

Esa Keskinen#

Bob WrenII

Jan Labraaten#

Jesper Mattsson

Marty Murray

Dave RocheII

Ed Ward

Sergei Zolotov#

Carolina Hurricanes

Chicago Blackhawks

Colorado Avalanche

Dallas Stars

Goaltenders

Mike FountainVI

Kirk DaubenspeckII

Craig Billington

Mike Bales

Pat JablonskiIII

Mark FitzpatrickII

Petr FranekII

Manny FernandezII

Trevor Kidd

Marc LamotheVI

Defencemen

Paul Coffey

Frank Bialowas

Jeff BuchananVI

Petr Buzek

Joacim Esbjörs#

Radim BicanekII

Michael Gaul

Shawn Chambers

Al IafrateIII

Dave Manson

Alexei GusarovIII

Alan Letang

Dave KarpaII

Doug Zmolek

Sami HeleniusVI

Doug LidsterIII

Curtis Leschyshyn

Sylvain LefebvreIII

Craig LudwigIII

Mike Rucinski

Eric Messier

Matt Martin

Cam RussellII

Evgeny Petrochinin#

Forwards

Tom BuckleyII

Sylvain Cloutier

Serge AubinII

Guy CarbonneauIII

Kevin DineenIII

Chris HerpergerVI

Chris Dingman

Kelly Fairchild

Dimitri Gorenko#

Mark Janssens

Tomi Hirvonen#

Marty FlichelII

Robert Kron

David Ling

Dale HunterIII

Aaron GaveyII

Scott LevinsII

Craig MillsII

Mikael Johansson#

Benoit HogueIII

Paul Ranheim

Ed OlczykIII

Martin LamarcheII

Tony HrkacIII

Ray SheppardIII

Bob Probert

Tomi Kallio#

Lee JinmanII

Kevin Smyth

Ryan Vandenbussche

Christian MatteII

Sergei Luchinkin#

Jeff Odgers

Jeff MitchellII

Warren RycheIIIl

Dave ReidIII

Rob Shearer

David RobertsII

Brent SeverynIII

Brian Skrudland

Pat VerbeekIII

Detroit Red Wings

Edmonton Oilers

Florida Panthers

Los Angeles Kings

Goaltenders

Norm Maracle

Bob EssensaIII

Aaron MacDonald

exempt

Mike MinardII

Todd MacDonaldII

Steve PassmoreVI

Kirk McLeanIII

Defencemen

Todd GillIII

Adam Bennett

Terry Carkner

Dave BabychIII

Sean GillamII

Ladislav Benysek

Gord Murphy

Doug BodgerIII

Yan Golubovsky

Jason BowenII

Daniel Tjarnqvist#

Philippe Boucher

Doug HoudaIII

Brett Hauer

Jeff WareII

Garry Galley

Uwe Krupp

Marty McSorleyIII

Jan NemecekII

Jamie MacounIII

Craig Millar

Martin Strbak#

Ulf SamuelssonIII

Frank Musil

Mark VisheauVI

Sami Nuutinen

Reijo Ruotsalainen

Alexander Zhurik

Lukas Zib#

Forwards

Pavel Agarkov#

Kelly Buchberger

Chad CabanaII

Dan BylsmaII

Doug Brown

Brad ChurchII

Dino Ciccarelli

Brandon ConveryII

Wendel ClarkIII

Jozef Cierny

Brian FarrellII

Russ CourtnallIII

David Engblom#

Jeff DawVI

Craig Ferguson

Andrew DaleII

Brent Gilchrist

Jim DowdII

Johan Garpenlov

Ray FerraroIII

Petr KlimaIII

Pat FalloonII

Alex Hicks

Matt Johnson

Joey Kocur

Chris FerraroVI

Kirk Muller

Nathan Lafayette

Igor Larionov

Joe HulbigVI

Konstantin ShafranovVI

Steve McKennaII

Barry PotomskiVI

Ralph Intranuovo

Herberts VasiljevsII

Igor Melyakov#

Andrei Samokvalov#

Daniel LacroixV

Sandy MogerII

Anatoly Ustugov

Rem MurrayII

Jason MorganII

Martin Reichel#

Jason PodollanII

Keijo Sailynoja#

Sean ProngerII

Alexander Selivanov

Chris SchmidtII

Jussi Tarvainen#

Jukka Tiilikainen#

Vladimir VorobievVI

Vladimir TsyplakovII

Tomas Vlasak#

Juha Vuorivirta#

Magnus Wernblom#

Montreal Canadiens

New Jersey Devils

New York Islanders

New York Rangers

Goaltenders

exempt

exempt

Wade FlahertyIII

exempt

Mark McArthurII

Steve Valiquette

Defencemen

Steve CheredarykII

Brad BombardirII

Ted CrowleyVI

Jeff Beukeboom

Brett Clark

Kevin Dean

David Harlock

Rich BrennanVI

Miloslav GurenVI

Geordie KinnearVI

Daniel Johansson#

Ilja Gorohov#

Marc HusseyVI

Vlastimil Kroupa

Mike Mader

Chris O'SullivanVI

Scott LachanceII

Ken Sutton

Dean Malkoc

Adam SmithII

Alain Nasreddine

Sergei VyshedkevichII

Evgeny NamestnikovVI

Chris TamerII

Stephane QuintalV

Dick Tarnstrom#

Brent ThompsonII

Forwards

Niklas Anger#

Dave AndreychukIII

Nic BeaudoinII

Derek ArmstrongII

Sylvain BlouinVI

Eric Bertrand

Vladimir Grachev#

Kevin BrownVI

Martin GendronVI

Steve Brule

Pavel Gross#

Christian DubéII

Jonas HoglundII

Sergei Brylin

Peter Hogardh#

Bob Errey

Eric HoudeII

Bob CarpenterIII

Mike HoughIII

Brent FedykIII

J.F. JompheII

Scott DanielsII

Ryan HuskaII

Scott Fraser

Arto Kuki#

Bobby HouseVI

Dane JacksonVI

Ken Gernander

Trent McCleary

Sasha Lakovic

Craig JanneyIII

Daniel GoneauII

Boyd OlsonII

Sergei Nemchinov

Mike KennedyII

Chris Kenady

Oleg Petrov

Vadim Sharifijanov

Tomas Klimt#

Radoslav Kropac#

Patrick Poulin

Jeff WilliamsII

Gino Odjick

Alexander Lazarenko#

Peter Strom#

Dody Wood

Joe SaccoII

Mike ManelukVI

Sergei Zholtok

Nikolai Zavarukhin#

Jason Stewart

Brad Smyth

Steve Webb

Esa TikkanenIII

Rudolf Vercik#

Ottawa Senators

Philadelphia Flyers

Phoenix Coyotes

Pittsburgh Penguins

Goaltenders

Frederic CassiviII

Ron Hextall

Scott LangkowII

Brian LeitzaII

Ron Tugnutt

Neil LittleVI

Mikhail Shtalenkov

Henrik Smangs#

Jimmy WaiteII

Defencemen

John Gruden

Artem Anisimov#‡

J.J. Daigneault

Jonas Andersson-Junkka#

Chris LuongoII

Steve DuchesneIII

Gerald DiduckIII

Greg AndrusakVI

Patrick Traverse

Chris JosephII

Jamie HuscroftIII

Stefan Bergqvist

Jeff Lank

Sean McCann

Bobby DollasIII

Dave MacIsaacVI

Stanislav NeckarII

Maxim Galanov

Luke Richardson

Michel PetitIII

Tuomas GronmanVI

Brad Tiley

Viktor IgnatjevVI

Jeff SerowikVI

Neil Wilkinson

Forwards

Bill BergIII

Mikael Andersson

Mika Alatalo#

Jan Alinc#

Phil Crowe

Craig BerubeIII

Bob CorkumIII

Brian BoninVI

Nelson EmersonIII

Dennis BonvieVI

Jim Cummins

Rob Brown

David Hruska#

Marc Bureau

Louie Debrusk

Todd HlushkoII

Andreas Johansson

Mark Greig

Joe DziedzicII

Mikhail Kazakevich#

David OliverII

Paul Healey

Stephen LeachIII

Dan KesaII

Mike ProkopecVI

Jody Hull

Jocelyn LemieuxIII

Jiri Kucera#

Andre Roy

Patrik Juhlin

Fredrik Loven#

Patrick LebeauVI

Yves SaraultII

Dan KordicII

Rob Murray

Brent PetersonVI

Andy Schneider

Shawn McCosh

Barry NieckarVI

Ryan SavoiaVI

Shaun Van Allen

Steve McLaren

Brian NoonanIII

Mika Valila#

Jim Montgomery

Mike Stapleton

Tyler WrightII

Richard ParkII

Mike SullivanIII

Boris Zelenko#

Ruslan Shafikov#

Andrei VasilyevVI

Radovan Sornik#

Martin Streit#

Roman Vopat

Peter White

Jason Zent

St. Louis Blues

San Jose Sharks

Tampa Bay Lightning

Toronto Maple Leafs

Goaltenders

Jim Carey

Jonas Forsberg#

Daren Puppa

Doug BonnerII

Grant Fuhr

Sean Gauthier

Corey SchwabII

Glenn Healy

Jamie McLennan

Bruce RacineVI

Derek WilkinsonII

Jeff Reese

Mike Vernon

Defencemen

Marc Bergevin

Peter AllenVI

Jassen Cullimore

Kevin DahlII

Rory FitzpatrickII

Alexandre BoikovII

Kjell SamuelssonIII

Dallas EakinsII

Edwin Frylen#

Bill Houlder

Michal SykoraII

Glen FeatherstoneII

Yuri Gunko#

Angel Nikolov#

David WilkieII

Tommi Rajamaki#

Brian Heimer

Fredrik Oduya

Greg SmythIII

Chris McAlpineII

Jon RohloffII

Yannick Tremblay

Rudy Poeschek

Bob Rouse

Dmitri Yakushin

Jamie RiversII

Brad ShawIII

Geoff SmithII

Jason Widmer

Forwards

Blair AtcheynumII

Eric BennettVI

Jesse BelangerII

Niklas AnderssonII

Kelly Chase

Shawn Burr

Jason BonsignoreII

Lonny BohonosII

Geoff Courtnall

Jan Caloun

Brian BradleyIII

Aaron BrandII

Tyson Nash

Mike CraigII

Colin CloutierII

Nathan Dempsey

Michel PicardII

Murray Craven

Alexandre Daigle

Mark Deyell

Stephane RoyII

Jarrett Deuling

Stephane Richer

Tie Domi

Kevin SawyerVI

Anatoli Filatov#

Paul YsebaertIII

Mikael Hakansson#

Shayne Toporowski

Tony Granato

Derek King

Tony TwistIII

Timo Hakanen

Kris King

Terry Yake

Dave LowryIII

Ladislav KohnII

Mikko Markkanen#

Marek Melenovsky#

Joe MurphyIII

David NemirovskyII

Greg PankewiczVI

Scott PearsonII

Teemu Riihijarvi#

Garry ValkIII

Jarrod SkaldeII

Ron Sutter

Markus Thuresson#

Alexei Yegorov

Vancouver Canucks

Washington Capitals

Goaltenders

Corey HirschII

Stephane Beauregard

Garth SnowII

Martin BrochuVI

Michael RosatiII

Rick TabaracciII

Defencemen

Roger Akerstrom#

Nolan Baumgartner

Murray Baron

Patrick BoileauII

Karri Kivi#

Enrico CicconeII

Dana MurzynIII

Stewart MalgunasII

Bert RobertssonVI

Dmitri Mironov

Mark WottonVI

Steve Poapst

Mark TinordiIII

Forwards

Notes

Hakan Ahlund#

Patrick AugustaVI

II—pending Group II restricted free agent

Jevgeni Babariko#

Brian BellowsIII

III—pending Group III unrestricted free agent

Larry CourvilleII

Mike Eagles

V—pending Group V free agent

Dave Gagner

Miika Elomo

VI—pending Group VI free agent

Robb GordonII

Trevor Halverson

#—unsigned European draft choice

Roger Hansson#

Mark MajorVI

‡—Artem Vyacheslavovich Anisimov, born 1976 in Kazan, USSR

Trent Klatt

Kelly MillerIII

Stefan Nilsson#

Barrie Moore

Darren SinclairII

Jeff Nelson

Steve StaiosII

Michal Pivonka

Steve WashburnII

Jeff TomsII

Peter ZezelIII

Stefan Ustorf

The Draft

Player

Position

From

Jamie Pushor

Defenceman

Mighty Ducks of Anaheim

Peter Ferraro

Right Wing

Boston Bruins

Darryl Shannon

Defenceman

Buffalo Sabres

Ed Ward

Right Wing

Calgary Flames

Trevor Kidd

Goaltender

Carolina Hurricanes

Sylvain Cloutier

Centre

Chicago Blackhawks

Tomi Kallio

Right Wing

Colorado Avalanche

Petr Buzek

Defenceman

Dallas Stars

Norm Maracle

Goaltender

Detroit Red Wings

Kelly Buchberger

Right Wing

Edmonton Oilers

Johan Garpenlov

Left Wing

Florida Panthers

Matt Johnson

Left Wing

Los Angeles Kings

Brett Clark

Defenceman

Montreal Canadiens

Kevin Dean

Defenceman

New Jersey Devils

David Harlock

Defenceman

New York Islanders

Chris Tamer

Defenceman

New York Rangers

Phil Crowe

Right Wing

Ottawa Senators

Jody Hull

Right Wing

Philadelphia Flyers

Mike Stapleton

Centre

Phoenix Coyotes

Maxim Galanov

Defenceman

Pittsburgh Penguins

Terry Yake

Centre

St. Louis Blues

Alexei Yegorov

Right Wing

San Jose Sharks

Corey Schwab

Goaltender

Tampa Bay Lightning

Yannick Tremblay

Defenceman

Toronto Maple Leafs

Steve Staios

Right Wing

Vancouver Canucks

Mark Tinordi

Defenceman

Washington Capitals

Like the Predators the year before, the Thrashers were limited to choosing a maximum of six free agents, whether they were restricted or unrestricted. Whereas David Poile picked three Group III unrestricted free agents he thought would sign elsewhere for big money and get him compensatory draft picks in return Don Waddell chose only one: Mark Tinordi of the Washington Capitals. Unfortunately Tinordi neither signed with the Thrashers nor anyone else. In a game in February 1999 Tinordi broke his ankle; it was believed to be relatively minor at the time but would still require a few months of healing and recuperating.

It turned out to be a little more complex and acute than they'd thought. Tinordi broke his talus, one of the tarsal bones of the ankle that has very little blood supply to it and is notorious for taking a long time to heal. The blood flow to his talus actually stopped due to the damage from the incident, and the bone itself became necrotic over the summer of '99. His career was over. He had a bone graft in October 1999, began rehabilitation in February 2000, and never played pro hockey again.

The Predators used five of their expansion draft picks in 1998 on goalies, picking two of the franchise's future starting goalies (Mike Dunham and Tomas Vokoun), a high-priced free agent (Mike Richter) who would net the Predators a high compensatory draft pick, and a couple more whom the Predators could trade for other assets (Frederic Chabot and Mikhail Shtalenkov). By contrast Waddell picked only three goalies; the minimum. He believed he had already found his starting goalie in Damian Rhodes—Rhodes signed a big contract soon after being traded to the Thrashers—so Waddell used his extra picks on defencemen instead. Norm Maracle and Corey Schwab were chosen to battle for the back-up position to Rhodes, and Trevor Kidd was chosen because of a pre-arranged deal.

Remember what I said above about the Florida Panthers needing a new goalie? The Thrashers agreed to chose Trevor Kidd from the Carolina Hurricanes and trade him to the Panthers immediately following the draft for a package of players and a draft pick. It was one of eight trades the Thrashers made on the 25th, following the draft:

Panthers traded Gord Murphy, Daniel Tjarnqvist, Herberts Vasiljevs and the Senators' 6th round pick in the 1999 Entry Draft (previously acquired; later traded to the Stars, who selected Justin Cox) to the Thrashers for Trevor Kidd

Bruins traded Randy Robitaille to the Thrashers for Peter Ferraro

Sabres traded Dean Sylvester to the Thrashers for future considerations

Flames traded Andreas Karlsson to the Thrashers for future considerations

Most of the deals were compensation to the Thrashers for staying away from certain players in the expansion draft. The Red Wings for example dealt pending free agent Ulf Samuelsson to the Thrashers as compensation for not selecting Igor Larionov. Samuelsson ended up signing a two-year deal with the Flyers after the 1999-2000 started however the Thrashers didn't receive any compensation due to free agent signings of their own. The Devils parted with Sergei Vyshedkevich as compensation for the Thrashers not taking Sergei Brylin, Sergei Nemchinov, Vadim Sharifijanov or Brad Bombardir.

The Bruins were very optimistic that Peter Ferraro would become a great player. Why they elected to protect Randy Robitaille instead of Ferraro and then trade Robitaille to the Thrashers to get Ferraro back, I don't know. You'd have to ask Harry Sinden. Both were pretty evenly matched in their point production at the AHL level. Ferraro had an unspectacular year for the NHL Bruins but was the AHL Providence Bruins' leading scorer in the playoffs—21 points to Robitaille's 20. Robitaille played almost the entire year in Providence and led the team in regular season scoring with 102 points in 74 games (1.38 points per game), however Ferraro played only 16 games in the AHL regular season but amassed 25 points (1.56 points per game) doing so.

Robitaille was a restricted free agent and refused to sign with the Thrashers, so he was traded to the Predators for Denny Lambert in August 1999 anyway. Over the course of the summer of '99 Don Waddell made several trades to shore up his fledgling roster:

Canucks traded the Lightning's first round pick in 1999 (1st overall and previously acquired—the Thrashers selected Patrik Stefan) to the Thrashers for the Thrashers' first round pick in '99 (2nd overall—the Canucks selected Daniel Sedin) and a conditional 3rd round pick in 2000 (traded to the Devils, who selected Max Birbraer) on June 26

Predators traded future considerations to the Thrashers for Phil Crowe on June 26

Stars traded Per Svartvadet to the Thrashers for the Panthers' 6th round pick in 1999 (previously acquired—the Stars selected Justin Cox) on June 26

Maple Leafs traded Martin Prochazka to the Thrashers for a 6th round pick in 2001 (Maxim Kondratiev) on July 15

Stars traded Jason Botterill and cash to the Thrashers for Jamie Pushor on July 15

Predators traded Denny Lambert to the Thrashers for the rights to Randy Robitaille on August 16

Mighty Ducks traded an 8th round pick in 2000 (Evan Nielsen) to the Thrashers for Ladislav Kohn on September 27 (the Thrashers acquired Kohn with the first pick in the waiver draft that day)

The Thrashers also signed Nelson Emerson and Ray Ferraro as free agents (the gain of two free agents versus the loss of one—Ulf Samuelsson—in the summer of '99 meant that the Thrashers received no compensatory draft picks for losing Samuelsson), and lost Terry Yake in the 1999 Waiver Draft.

Of the 26 players chosen by the Thrashers in the '99 Expansion Draft four were traded before the team's first training camp, another eight were gone by the end of the first season, and four more were gone over the following season. By the end of the 2001-2002 season, the Thrashers' third, only four players remained from the 26 chosen in the expansion draft. Tomi Kallio was traded to the Avalanche on December 2, 2002, Norm Maracle left after the 2002-2003 season, Yannick Tremblay left after the 2003-2004 season, and Chris Tamer was the only one who finished out his career with the organization, retiring as a player in 2005.

Roster turnover like that isn't uncommon for an NHL expansion team (the Predators lost a similar number over a similar time) but unfortunately for the Thrashers their group of expansion draftees was by far the worst of the four 1998-2000 expansion clubs. The Thrashers finished their first season with a dismal 14-57-7-4 record, good for only 39 points. It was the worst expansion team since the 1992-93 Senators' 24-point squad, and the worst team since the 1993-94 Senators' 37 points. No team has been as dismal since.